"Today more than 500 million people are using Messenger each
month and we’re more committed than ever to make it the best
possible messaging experience," said Facebook's director of
product management, Peter Martinazzi,
in a press release.

"Asking everyone in our community to install a
new app is a big ask," Zuckerberg said. "I appreciate that that
was work and required friction. We wanted to do this because we
believe that this is a better experience. Messaging is becoming
increasingly important. On mobile, each app can only focus on
doing one thing well, we think."

Messenger quickly rocketed to
the top of the App Store, but the app's review page was quickly
filled with one-star reviews from disgruntled users and those
worried about the app's privacy.

While Facebook's decision to turn Messenger into a required app
annoyed users, that moment has clearly passed, and it just goes
to show the Facebook ecosystem makes a lucrative messaging app
all on its own.

Messenger's 500 million users means the app is now competing with
WhatsApp, which reached 600 million monthly active users in
August.